pinkies

[maverick]

I am currently feeding my snakes rosy red feeder fish. In september I plan to start them on pinkies. We have a reptile show coming to this area and I can buy a years worth of frozen pinkies real cheap, but back to the point, has anyone of you had trouble feeding pinkies for the first time?

[StoneSour]

If you have any trouble getting the garters to eat pinkies, try scenting them with fish or earthworms.

[Daniel]

Hi Maverick,

if you will have any troubles in feeding your garter snakes pinkys depends on what kind of garter snakes you have. If you have T. sauritus ssp. or T. proximus ssp. it could be difficult.

Best wishes,

Daniel

PS: Sorry, I haven´t seen your post with the list of snakes you are keeping in the other thread. Thamnophis radix doesn´t make any troubles in eating pinkys.

[wyldkardde]

I've been considering the switch over to pinkies. I have one snake that is of proper size now, so I'm definitely interested. Any advise for a total pinkie noob? How would you initially offer a pinkie to a snake who has never seen one?

[ssssnakeluvr]

you need to scent the pink with fish or worms...I use fish a lot, but if I have one that's partial to worms I will scent it with worms. It works fairly well, occasionally you will have one finicky one...my anery red sider will pick all around the pinkie parts and eat the fish.....:(

[Boots]

Changing the scent can help the snake realize that the pinky is food. I once tried to feed a red-tail boa a chick, but it did not seem interested. I thought the chick was a goner when it hopped on the snakes head, but nothing. The snake just sat there. After about half an hour of watching the chick hop around, I dropped a mouse figuring that I would be able to remove the chick when the snake went for the mouse. I seemed to work, since the second I dropped the mouse, he was ready to strike. The only problem is that the chicken saw the mouse at the same time, and went to peck at it. Not sure why them the chick would peck the mouse, but when the snake saw the chick attack the mouse, he decided that if the mouse was food, that the chicken must also be food. He ended up eating both, and I never had a problem feeding him chicken after that. Guess the mouse tasted like chicken or vise versa. :)

Jason

[Faunaofthenorth]

hey! I have had some trouble getting my garters to feed on pinkies and mice in general, but at first they wouldn't except anything at all, but everytime i would feed them fish i would introduce the rodents in the enclosure to get them used to the scent being that they were afraid of it. Then i scented them with fish and it sort of worked the first few times then they stopped accepting. So i found that earthworms did the trick as well as the urine from toads that excrete as a defense. My thamnophis sirtalis annectans seemed to take to rodents quicker than any other snake. Recently i got my albino checkered garter to feed on wild baby mice that i found abandoned. So its obviously not impossible just sometimes quite difficult, i mean now my female eastern is eating full grown adult rats so keep trying.

[Boots]

Recently i got my albino checkered garter to feed on wild baby mice that i found abandoned.

An Albino Checkered Garter? I did not even know they existed. Any chance you have a picture or two to share?

Jason

[Faunaofthenorth]

yeah they are one of the most popular in the pet trade with the exception of gartersnakemorphs.com, and thamnophiswest.com. um im new to the forums um how do i post a pic? srry, i have them but don't know how to post them

[ssssnakeluvr]

don't forget donsgartersnakes.com LOL!!!!

[CrazyHedgehog]

Are we talking from newly born? if so I have found a mix of chopped pinkies and a little chopped trout will usually be enough for any baby garter to start with, as they grow (very rapidly) go to half pinkies then full, eventiually dropping the fish all together, or giving as alternative food.

If I have difficult eaters, I give them the same chopped mix, but add a few small worms (or cut worm pieces), the writhing of the worm usually sparks interest, once it starts to eat the worm, it generally just carries on eating!

If you are trying to change over food, I have found adding a pinkie to the fish, well rubbed so that all the food smells fishy, gradually more pinkies, less fish, until you need no fish at all.

[a.l.e.x]

I've read that pinlies aren't very good because they don't have lots of proteins and those things. I would better give them frogs, which I've heard are good for them.

[ssssnakeluvr]

Pinkies are the most nutritious food for them. They provide all the nutrition they need. Frogs are a normal part of their diet inthe wild, however, they can transmit parasites to your snakes. If fed pinks, they don't have to be fed as often as with other foods.

[a.l.e.x]

Well, where I read it is a page in spanish, but they said they weren't so good for corn snakes and ball pithons. Maybe for garter snakes they are good.

[ssssnakeluvr]

thats interesting......corns and balls are mainly rodent eaters....pinkies are good for them.....makes ya wonder about the site you visited...:confused:

[Thamnophis]

Pinky's are good food, especially when they are a fwe days old and already have been fed by their mothermouse.
But pinky's from one day old are also not bad.

[a.l.e.x]

mmmmmm, well, I say it in a site in spanish, is www.ophidia.es (http://www.ophidia.es), where it says "Alimentación".

[Thamnophis]

Alimentación means "diet", I think.
Don't know what they mean with this.

But ik do know that almost every newborn ratsnake the first month(-s) is fed wit pinky's. This must be hundred of thousands snakes worldwide.
And this goes well.

[sschind]

I've read that pinlies aren't very good because they don't have lots of proteins and those things. I would better give them frogs, which I've heard are good for them.

They are not saying that pinkies are not good food. They are saying that as your snakes grow you should move them up to larger rodent prey as soon as possible.

They are saying is that pinkies are not as nutritionally complete as adult, or even fuzzy, mice. The bones are not completely calcified thus there is not as much calcium in a pinkie. As far as other nutrients go, I don't know about that but I have read that about pinkies and calcium in a few places. I don't know how true it is.

From the limited translation I could do, and the little time I had to read it, this seems like a pretty decent site that he visited.


Steve

[ssssnakeluvr]

Interesting....mine grow real fast and healthy on pinkies...haven't had any problems....

[Cazador]

There are two ways that bones form. One was is that cartilage is deposited. Then it calcifies into bones. The second way is for bone to be formed directly. Newborn mice (pinkies) have a higher proportion of cartilage (less calcium) compared to older mice. Their bones are becoming calcified, but are not completely calcified. This is why you hear about pinkies being low in calcium and older mice being better. The young mice (or even adults for that matter) may be deficient in vitamins and minerals. Lack of these is what causes scurvy, for example, when people only eat a diet of meat. Maybe the pinkies/hoppers have an adequate vitamin load in their guts (depending upon what THEY ate), and maybe they don't. This is why I always try to promote the use of vitamin supplementation in a snake's diet.

The vitamin D that comes in calcium powder helps to assimilate the calcium (deposit it into the snake's muscles and bones). As far as protein goes, any meat source contains all 20 of the amino acids necessary to produce proteins, which are necessary to grow. Hope this helps.
Rick

[sschind]

They do grow fast and healthy but the key is as they grow you increase the size of the food item. As a pinkie becomes a fuzzy it contains more calcium as the bones are calcified. Try feeding your snake a steady diet of nothing but pinkies even as it grows and you may see different results.

The wbsite was not saying that pinkies are bad food, they were simply saying that in order to provide greater nutritional value you should increase the size of the food item accordingly as soon as possible.

[ssssnakeluvr]

I do move them up to larger ones as they grow. My florida blue eats full grown mice! Would take a lot of pinkies to fill her up!!!!!!!

[abcat1993]

How long does a pinky last after you thaw it. You can't refreeze it can you?

[sschind]

If you don't leave them out too long you can refreeze them but when you thaw them again they get real slimy. I will leave mine in with the snakes overnight but usually not more than 8 hours. I wouldn't refreeze if they were out more than an hour.

[ssssnakeluvr]

Same here, if they have been out more than an hour or 2 I toss them. I have refrozen pinkies without a problem many times, but usually they have only been thawed for less than an hour.

[abcat1993]

How often should I feed a pinky to my snake? (sorry if this was already covered in another post but I searched without finding anything)

[ssssnakeluvr]

depends on the size of the snake....smaller ones will be fine on a pinkie or 2 a week. larger snakes need larger meals. I generally feed twice a week.

[abcat1993]

How long before and after feeding should I not hold my snake?

[Cazador]

It may be good to get several opinions on this one, but I'm not at all hesitant to hold my garters soon after feeding them. I think the guideline to wait a day or two mainly applies to larger snakes that might have the bones of their prey at odd angles in their stomach. I never make an effort to wait at all.

[Thamnophis]

I handle my snakes, if neccessary, immediately after feeding. But it depends on which specimen it is. Some nervous types you can better keep your hands of for one or two days.

[Cazador]

Is that because they might try to dash away, and you might end up squeezing their stomach and hurting them as you catch them?

[Thamnophis]

Nervous snakes tend to vomate their prey when they are handled.

But when you want to play it safe, leave your snakes in peace for two days after feeding them.

[Cazador]

Yikes. I've had nervous snakes that trembled when I open the cage but never vomit. I guess I've been lucky.

[abcat1993]

would it be okay to feed one pinky every tuesday and one worm every thursday instead of one to two pinkies every week?

[Thamnophis]

would it be okay to feed one pinky every tuesday and one worm every thursday instead of one to two pinkies every week?

I see nothing wrong in that. And when the snake gets bigger you give 2 pinkies and 2 worms for example.

[sidguppy]

I tried to feed pinkies without any success as well.
rubbed some smelt-juice on em (the snakes eat smelt with no problems) but it didn't work. not even after a 1 week fast.
in the end I had to give the still twitching pinkies to my spiders as it was a bit pityful to watch, those undercooled mouse embryos still trying to find a mum mouse.
luckily 2 out of 3 spiders ate them in minutes (my 3rd is a rosea, another slow eater) ending the ordeal for the little mice. the 3rd pinky was fed to the biggest axoltl, another empty stomach with legs attached.

maybe I try it again when the snakes are bigger -biggest is now about 55-60cm or so/22-24" and about 1cm/0,5" thick when it's not recently fed.

I'll stick to earthworms and fish.

I tried snails (slugs) as well, but they won't touch these either, not even the most voracious snake.

I've read about marcianus eating mice, according to the books this one should eat pinkies readily. true or false?

mine are radix.